306 Pages
    by Routledge

    306 Pages
    by Routledge

    This distinctive volume combines synthetic theoretical essays and reports of original research to address the interrelations of communication and community in a wide variety of settings. Chapters address interpersonal conversation and communal relationships; journalism organizations and political reporting; media use and community participation; communication styles and alternative organizations; and computer networks and community building; among other topics. The contents offer synthetic literature reviews, philosophical essays, reports of original research, theory development, and criticism. While varying in theoretical perspective and research focus, each of the chapters also provides its own approach to the practice of communication and community. In this way, the book provides a recurrent thematic emphasis on the pragmatic consequences of theory and research for the activities of communication and living together in communities.

    Taken as a whole, this collection illustrates that communication and community cannot be adequately analyzed in any context without considering other contexts, other levels of analysis, and other media and modes of communication. As such, it provides important insights for scholars, students, educators, and researchers concerned with communication across the full range of contexts, media, and modes.

    Contents: Preface. Part I: Introduction. D. Depew, J.D. Peters, Community and Communication: The Conceptual Background. Part II: Interpersonal Relations, Organizations, and Community. G.J. Shepherd, Community as the Interpersonal Accomplishment of Communication. C.H. Adams, Prosocial Bias in Theories of Interpersonal Communication Competence: Must Good Communication Be Nice? S. Shuler, Talking Community at 911: The Centrality of Communication in Coping With Emotional Labor. K.L. Ashcraft, Feminist Organizing and the Construction of "Alternative" Community. L.M. Gossett, P.K. Tompkins, Community as a Means of Organizational Control. G. Cheney, Forms of Connection and "Severance" in and Around the Mondragón Worker-Cooperative Complex. Part III: Media, the Public, and Community. E.W. Rothenbuhler, Revising Communication Research for Working on Community. B. Zelizer, Collective Memory as "Time Out": Repairing the Time-Community Link. H.E. Sypher, B. Collins, Virtual-Online Communities: How Might New Technologies Be Related to Community? T.M. Harrison, J.P. Zappen, T. Stephen, P. Garfield, C. Prell, Building an Electronic Community: A Town-Gown Collaboration. K.R. Stamm, Of What Use Is Civic Journalism: Do Newspapers Really Make a Difference in Community Participation? C.R. Martin, The Limits of Community in Public Journalism. A. Calabrese, Why Localism? Communication Technology and the Shifting Scale of Political Community.

    Biography

    Gregory J. Shepherd, Eric W. Rothenbuhler

    "The editors have done well to compile a collection that takes the reader down a winding path of communication as it relates to community. This book provides a thorough presentation of numerous types of communities, reminding us there is no set answer, no one theory to account for the relationship between communication and community. Shepherd and Rothenbuhler compiled a book useful to researchers interested in the relationships between communication and community."
    The Southern Communication Journal